Women's trade – a growing concern for the Church Social Thought

The objectives of this article are to address a situation where life is threatened by international trafficking of humans and illustrate some serious concerns of the Church in this matter. This article emerges from experience, since one of the authors acted as a priest of the Catholic Church in East Timor in the border with Indonesia. UN studies show that human trafficking victims’ men and women, adults and children, and the sexual exploitation is one of the most dramatic and reported forms of it. The main motivation is economic, and this traffic generates billions of dollars in illegal profits each year. The Roman Catholic Church addressed the issue more clearly in the Second Vatican Council denouncing what was called "trade in women and children". Pope John Paul II situated this practice between the actions that are opposed to life and violate the human integrity. The Pope Francisco situated the problem under the current poor working conditions, as well as in the context of migration and refugees. Thus, human trafficking is an emerging theme in the Church, with concerns rising, appointed as attack on human dignity, crime, exploitation and result of poor working conditions that affects those who live in greater poverty on Earth.